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Telstra fibre cable cut by 'vandals'

Update: Knocks out internet and phone services in parts of NSW Hunter region.

Telstra has warned of a deliberate cut to a major fibre cable connecting Maitland and the Hunter Valley in NSW, affecting thousands of phone and broadband services.

The telco indicated the cut had occurred at approximately 1.30am this morning to a 100-fibre line connecting the areas.

Final repairs were made just after 11am with final checks undertaken before fibre services were fully restored.

Customers in Scone, Singleton, Murrurundi and surrounding areas in NSW are believed to be affected.

A spokesman for the telco said about 19,000 local phone services, 8000 ADSL service and a small number of mobile towers were receiving connection issues or intermittent timeouts as a result of the cut.

“Several hundred spectrum services” were also likely affected by the cable damage but none of Telstra’s major wholesale customers provided information on service disruptions in the area at time of writing.

The Telstra spokesman said “vandals” were most likely to blame.

Repairs are underway but it could take more than eight hours to restore full services, he said.

“Initial investigations indicate the fibre appears to have been deliberately cut,” he told iTnews this morning.

“This will be the subject of further investigation but our current priority is restoration of services.

“Our crews have been on site assessing the damage and planning repairs and with rejoining of the fibres now underway services will restore with each repaired fibre over the next few hours.”

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